This invention relates generally to the flushing of a water cooled inboard marine powered generator with fresh water and to the winterization of such generators.
Cooling systems of internal combustion engines, such as inboard marine engines, power generators and air conditioning units installed on power boats use raw water drawn from an ambient body of water on which the boat operates. Raw water, such as salt water or water from a lake or river, is corrosive to marine cooling systems, so that to protect the cooling systems, regular and proper flushing with fresh water is needed to prolong the life expectancy and to improve the performance of engines, power generators and air conditioning units. Similarly, such marine engines, power generators and air conditioning units on a boat need to be winterized by flushing the cooling systems with fresh water and filling them with anti-freeze or the like. Most currently operated cooling systems of inboard marine engines including inboard powered generators and air conditioning units do not have flushing and winterizing units installed. The boat owners resort to flushing and winterizing of inboard systems by disconnecting the raw water intake conduit from the raw pickup valve, or seacock, and connecting a fresh water hose thereto for flushing the system. This is sometimes accomplished by the adding of a flushing valve into the cooling line to allow the quick connection of a garden hose while closing off the raw water intake with a valve and applying fresh water to the cooling system.
However, you should never affix a garden hose directly to the intake hose of a marine generator. Applying water under pressure to the generator can damage the generator.
To safely flush a marine electrical generator generally requires disconnecting the raw water intake hose and placing the end into a bucket. The bucket is continuously filled with fresh water from a garden hose with the generator engine running so that the impeller pump from the cooling system draws fresh water from the bucket into and through the electric generator's cooling system. This requires that fresh water from a garden hose be continuously fed to the bucket so that the bucket will not run out of water and cause a forced overheat shutdown and damage to the impeller pump and risk of impeller parts being sucked into the cooling system which can damage the generator. This is a time consuming and inconvenient procedure since there is generally poor accessability to the raw water intake pipe and there is limited working space for a bucket. This in turn leads to insufficient and infrequency flushing and inefficient or less safe generator operation. The raw water intake hose and its hose clamps have to be disconnected and reconnected from the raw water pickup valve which can be quickly worn out and damaged. Similar to flushing and winterizing of the marine electric generator, it is usually done once a year with the same inconveniences and expense required in flushing the cooling system. This expense makes it less likely that the cooling system of the electric generator is kept clean which allows a buildup of corrosion in the cooling system.
There are a number of devices known in the prior art for flushing and winterizing marine engine systems and these include the Csitari U.S. Pat. No. 7,025,643 for a quickflush valve kit for flushing and winterizing of the cooling system of inboard marine engines, power generators, air-conditioning units, and sailboat engines. This flushing system places a valve in the raw water intake of a marine, engine which allows raw water to be cut off and replaced with fresh water directly from a water hose. A similar flushing system can be seen in the patent to Maxon, U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,612, and in the Bertino et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,625,256.
In the Parker U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,880, a flushing valve for inboard boat engines works in a similar way but has a pair of check valves interconnected in the raw water intake which allows a hose to be connected to replace the raw water intake to the engine. In the Rodriguez, U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,044, a pressure actuated flush valve is provided for flushing marine engines which also includes a valve switching mechanism controlled by the pressure of the fresh water supply when connected to direct fresh water through the engine for flushing out the sea water. The McCoy U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,175 is a flush valve also working with a check valve for connecting a fresh water supply into the cooling line for a marine engine. In the Patti U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,618 a fresh water flushing kit is provided for allowing the engine cooling system to be flushed out with fresh water. The Montague U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,885 is for an electronic winterizer installed on the interior of a boat to winterize an inboard/outboard engine.
The present invention is a marine electric generator flushing system for a boat which is mounted in the boat at the water level of the boat and allows the electric generator to be flushed without damage to the generator that might result from a direct connection of a fresh water hose.